


Some Guy I Used to Know

by mercury_drop



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Crack, Getting Together, Humor, M/M, Organized Crime, Pining, Sexual Content, Unresolved Sexual Tension, at times - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:47:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23069455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercury_drop/pseuds/mercury_drop
Summary: He’d said they were gonna get married. And sure, they were just kids at the time, so, you know, it hadn’t meant much. Whatever. He knows that. That’s not the point. What Naruto wants to know is how you go from being someone’s childhood fiancé to-to...To just some guy.So they haven’t seen each other in 17 years, ok. Fine, some people forget. But, uh, he still remembers, so like what the fuck? That ain’t right. Anyway, that being said, it’s totally, really not that big a deal anyway. It doesn’t phase him at all. Like at all, at all.Seriously. No for reals. Naruto doesn’t care. In fact, he’s gonna forget about him too, make space in his head for better, more important memories.It’s just, you know, he’s curious. Like, first of all, what’s up with all the muscle? That, he’s, uh, really curious about that. Top of the list, definitely. But, umm, also, why’s his vibe so...strange? Secretive, perhaps? Like a little shady too? Is he hiding something?And does he really not remember him?
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25





	Some Guy I Used to Know

“ _Damn it, Nar—_ ” Several others start cursing as well, most of them yelling, and it drowns out whatever the rest of that sentence was. It _might’ve_ been directed at him...but probably not. And really, there’s just no way of knowing. It’s all unintelligible anyway. 

  
“Yo, can someone kick Naruto out of the party already?” Well, except for that.

  
“Yeah, why hasn’t anyone fucking done that yet?” And that too. And then a couple other things.

“Wha—I can’t have a bad day or something?!”

  
“A bad day? Bro, you’re not even playing. You’ve been camped out in the same spot for the last four rounds, just talking into the mic—going _on and on_ about some guy you saw earlier!”

  
Naruto glances down at his controller. It’s sitting next to him on the couch, long-forgotten. “Nuh huh,” he says, eyes flicking back up to the screen. 

  
Kiba, of course, starts yelling at him. Then a few minutes later, they finally kick him out of the party. 

  
He doesn’t even consider joining another one after that. He just sits there and stares at the main menu, watching the same animation loop over and over again. 

  
Kiba’s such a stupid-head, and all his online friends suck. Who cares if he’d been a little off his game today...or, you know, not playing at all. _Whatever_. There was just something really important he’d needed to share. Can they blame him? He’s only human.

  
Gamers are humans too. You’d think they’d know that. 

  
And yeah, ok. So maybe he’s not like a _gamer_ gamer. He only ever plays online, for one. _And yeah_ , that might be (almost exclusively) because he really just likes to talk to people. Some might even say he’s _only_ in it for the voice chat. He disagrees with that, of course. 

  
Though, he has been known to join an online campaign or two in search, solely, of a captive audience. Which he’ll admit, isn’t very gamer of him.

  
Ok, so he likes talking over the voice chat. _Big deal_. He just really likes telling his friends or strangers (mostly strangers) about his day or whatever else happens to come to mind. Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Probably. At least, if you ask him anyway. It’s certainly not something that should get anyone kicked out of a party, that’s for sure.

  
Certainly not, and yet...here he is, staring at the main menu like some outcast. 

  
Naruto shakes his head.

  
So he has a “history”. Ok, but clearly things had been different today. He hadn’t been abusing the voice chat like “usual” (as Kiba might say, really it’s “once in a blue moon”). No, today he’d been abusing it with _purpose_. 

  
Today, he’d had something important to share. Something really important.

  
Kiba, that fucking stupid-head, had he really not been able to tell? Some best-friend he is, now what is he supposed to do? Just sit here and what? 

  
Think his own thoughts?

  
...Oh God, no. Anything but that. He won’t do it, there’s just no way. And yet—oh no, it’s happening? He’s already doing it? He’s not thinking, but that’s him thinking about not thinking his own thoughts. 

  
Oh, fuck.

  
No, no, no, brain. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about anything. Don’t remember what he said, _or...oh man,_ how it made you feel. Was it almost like that time—no, no, not thinking. We are not thinking. It’s not time to think about it. It’s nothing special anyway, he’s always been like that. The big-fat jerk had always treated him like a nobody. It’s no surprise that he’d...

  
Except, it is. Because, back then, it was all just jokes. He’d never been a nobody, not as kids. Not to him.

  
That bitch had told him they were gonna get _married_.

  
Wait—shit, he’s thinking.

  
He. Wasn’t. Supposed. To. Think.

  
But— _oh my God_ —he’d really said that though, hadn’t he? That he was going to marry him? No yeah, he had. Oh, he definitely had. Definitely, definitely, and well, now he can’t stop thinking about it. 

  
That bitch had said they were gonna get married! 

  
_And today_ , he?! At the—on his phone. He looked at him and he just—

  
“I’ll call you back later, there’s some guy staring at me.”

  
Some guy? He’s just some guy? That’s who he is now? Really? Fucking, just _some_ _guy_?! 

_S O M E ? ! ! G U Y ? ? ! ? ! ! !_

_Where the hell is his ladybug pillow?!_

  
Naruto lunges across the couch, lands on an old pillow of his, face first, and then begins screaming into it almost immediately. He keeps screaming, face buried in his ladybug pillow-pet until he runs completely out of breath. Afterwards, he sighs, feeling much better. 

  
There’s nothing quite like letting out a nice, long scream into the scream pillow, he thinks. Works every time.

  
Naruto flips over and stares up at his living room ceiling, sighing once again. He can’t keep wasting his time on all this not thinking-but thinking business. Especially, if he’s gonna be not thinking-but thinking about some dumb-ass, jerk-face all day.  
Like, who even cares if he doesn’t remember him? Not Naruto. 

  
You know, mostly anyway.

  
Naruto sits up, turns off his console, and then gets up off the couch. He should...he should go for a run or something. Yeah, that’d be good. No, but wait. He doesn’t run, that's a terrible idea. Well, but running _is_ good for the heart—the cardiovascular system, that is.

  
If he stays here, he’ll just keep doing the forbidden. He’ll keep t h i n k i n g. He’ll say he won’t. But he will.

In the end, it takes him 24 minutes to find his running shoes then another 6 to change into sweats. But, eventually, he does go for a run. 

  
And it really sucks.

  
—like _way_ more than he thought it would. Seriously, he almost dies. Ok, so not really. He’s just crazy out of shape, but it definitely _feels_ like he’s fighting for his life at one point. And anyway, actual risk of death aside, it’s still sort of the worst thing he’s ever been through.

  
It’s _definitely_ the biggest mistake of his life, that’s for sure. That stupid, suck-ass run, he regrets everything about it.

  
It’s really just one thing, though, if he thinks about it. What he regrets the most, it’s something that occurs halfway through his run. It’s, well...You see, he pukes. But it’s not about the puke or even _that_ he pukes. His regret lies in the event of it all, the unfortunate life-event of puking.

  
Simply put, halfway through his run, he pukes. And yeah, that’s bad. But it’s not _so_ bad. He’s what you might call, “pretty shameless”. So under normal circumstances, he’d probably just, quick, find some tree and puke behind it. No problem. In and out, real fast-like. Would he feel embarrassed? Yeah, he might. A little. The park he’s running in is pretty packed, after all. But he’d get over it in no time. He’s like that.

  
So yeah, a little casual puke at the park? No big deal, life’s crazy like that.

  
This, though? This ain’t nothing like that. 

  
This isn’t your everyday I-puked-behind-a-tree-at-the-park kinda moment. No, it’s an _oh-shit-that-dumb-ass-jerk-face-was-sitting-behind-the-tree-I-puked-on_ typa moment. 

...Yeah.

  
And so here we are.

  
“Listen, it’s not what it looks like.”

  
“...like you just ran up to vomit on the tree behind me, all sweaty and crying, you mean?”

  
Fuck, it is what it looks like. “That’s not what I, uh, I’m not—well, I am and the...uh. But I-I was _never crying_ ,” Naruto says, tear tracks on his face. It’s by far the most embarrassing thing he’s ever said to anyone while sober. 

  
And yet, somehow, he still manages to outdo himself almost immediately. 

  
“Anyway, _so that’s weird_. It’s-it’s me, again—haha. Remember? You, uh, called me ‘some guy’ earlier.” Why the ever-loving _fuck_ had he just brought that up?! Alright, ok, damage control. Quick, just say something else. “Though, really it could’ve been anyone. I’m-I’m just some guy, after all. Many people call me that. Haha, I’m the ‘some guy’ guy, if you think about it. Get it? Haha, just kidding. That’s super weird.”

  
Today? Easily in the top five worst days of his life, for sure.

  
Naruto’s on his knees, sitting only a few inches from his puke. Both hands are on his thighs, balled up so tightly that his knuckles are white. And he’s just staring down at them, at his shame fists, because it’s the only thing he’s been able to look at. It’s the only thing he’s dared to look at since he’d seen _him_. He’s been talking, rambling down at his lap, this entire time.

  
And now it’s silent.

  
It’d be pretty sweet, he thinks, if he suddenly just turned into a bug.

  
And really, is that so much to ask for? To somehow turn into an insect? It’s not like he has to turn into a butterfly or something cool like a spider. No, he could turn into something gross like a centipede or a worm, and it’d still be pretty sweet. Anything. He’d take anything, at all. So long as he wasn't here anymore, just sitting under _his_ gaze.

  
Naruto might still be looking at his fists of shame, sure. But he doesn’t have to look up to know that it’s there. He’s seen it enough, that gaze, what those pair of black eyes look like when they narrow on you like you’re some kind of peasant, all snooty and shit.

  
He can practically see it in his mind’s eye right now. In fact, his whole face is clear as day! 

  
...and wait, what? Why’s he looking at him like that, though? What, just ‘cause he puked a little, he thinks he’s better than him now?

  
That-that stupid, idiot jerk!

  
Made furious solely by the image in his own mind’s eye, Naruto jerks his head up with a sudden vengeance...only to freeze almost immediately with subsequent regret when he finds himself locked into the gaze of those dark eyes. The very same ones from all those years ago, narrowed on him like he knew they’d be.

  
So maybe he’d been caught a little off guard. In moments like these, however, it’s important to note that he was totally right. He didn’t have to see it to know. That glare of his never changes.

  
It comes as no surprise, though. He basically hasn’t changed. Everything about him is exactly how Naruto remembers. His looks, the way he stands (like he’s _so_ cool), it’s all the same. It’s sad, really, almost like he hasn’t matured at all. He doesn’t even dress differently for fuck’s sake. He’s still wearing the same kind of stuff—though, uh, maybe his usual style does _kind_ _of_ fit him a little differently now...what with all the muscle and stuff. 

  
Cause, uh...yeah. Those-those arms are new. Naruto doesn’t remember those...especially his forearms. Were they always so veiny? And his chest, that’s—yup, so that’s muscle too, huh? His shoulders maybe are the same still, perhaps? No, no, that’s, uh, wrong. They are also another spot with uh, all the muscle—and wow, so it’s like all over, huh? 

  
Whatever! Shut up eyes! Who cares anyway?!

  
Ok, so maybe _some_ things are a little different. But he still looks _mostly_ the same. He’s still got that same-old dumb face of his, for example. Though...now that he’s looking at it. It’s also maybe, for some reason, kind of really handsome? Almost like he’s older and more _manly_ now? Like, wow. So he’s, uh, not seven anymore, huh? And that, coupled with the muscles, well that’s-that’s just plain crazy. Wow, that’s—the face _and_ the muscles? Especially the arms, like really quick just going back to his shoulders for a moment…

What was he thinking?

“Are you on something?”

  
“Huh?” That’s not—he’s not. Words, he’s gotta use words. What? “Wah?” Aghh! _Full_ words, stupid! Use _full_ words!

  
_Pronounce the T!_

  
“Are. You. On. something?” the other asks him again.

  
Alright, he can answer this. He can do this. He’s got this.

  
“Not on drugs! I’m not!” _Fuck_. “Or-or anything else! Like that’s—you mean I don’t do drugs, right?” _Double fuck_. “I mean, do you mean I do drugs? Like I’m on ‘em, right now? Cause I’m not, if that’s what you mean.”

  
Oh my, _God_. Naruto’s never going to speak again.

“Right...” the other says, while glancing at his wristwatch. Then, without sparing him another look, he turns and starts walking away.

  
_No!_

  
“Hey, wait—” _Sasuke!_ Naruto slaps a hand over his mouth at the very last second, managing somehow to keep the name to himself. 

  
Sasuke stops and looks at him over his shoulder. 

  
Naruto’s heart is racing. His hand is still over his mouth, but he doesn’t realize. When he finally does, he tries to play it off like he’s stroking his chin. It’s not super convincing. But Sasuke doesn’t comment. He just stares at him, waiting. 

  
Right, so he’s supposed to say something now. 

  
“Uh…” Sasuke glares at him and begins to turn. Naruto panics. “Wait! You-you don’t know me! But we saw each other...earlier, at the coffee shop. You were on the phone. I, uh, guess I stared? Anyway, I just started grad school here, so...” 

  
Sasuke stops and looks at him, his cold, black eyes as impassive as ever. 

  
Naruto swallows down a bit nervously, a bit sad. “So it was, umm, nice meeting you. I guess,” he says. “Maybe, we’ll see each other around?”

  
Sasuke turns and walks away without replying. 

  
Naruto walks home. When he gets there, Kiba’s outside, waiting for him.

  
“Where’s your phone at, doofus?” 

  
“On my bed, I think.” Kiba slings an arm around him and Naruto pretends he doesn’t know why. They walk up the stairs to his apartment.

  
“So this guy—”

  
“Sasuke.”

  
“He sounds like an ass,” Kiba says. 

  
He is.

  
“Wanna talk about it?” 

  
Naruto does. “Na, that guy’s not even worth mentioning,” he says, instead. Kiba looks at him but doesn’t say anything.

  
There’s just really no point, if he thinks about it. It’s not like he _needs_ to talk about him anymore. It’s totally behind him now. It’s whatever, not even a big deal. Anway, who even cares about Sas— _that guy?_ Not him, that’s for sure.

  
And why should he? That guy—he doesn’t even know who he is. He doesn’t remember him; they’re basically strangers now. What they had? That was _years_ ago. They were children. It’s all memories now. Worse, they’re memories that _that_ _guy_ had deemed far too inconsequential to keep.

  
So then...why does he still remember them?

  
“Oh, _fuck no,_ ” Naruto says, thinking out loud. “I am deleting that shit right now.”

  
Kiba turns to look at him. “The Netflix app...or?” he asks, taking a sip of beer. They’re inside Naruto’s apartment now, sitting on his living room couches.

  
“What? No, not the app. The memories.” Kiba frowns. “Of _that guy,_ ” Naruto explains.

  
Kiba heaves a heavy sigh and pauses their show. “ _Naruto,_ ” he says in a low, warning tone. But Naruto doesn’t turn to look at him, suddenly somehow unable to tear his eyes away from the TV. 

  
Kiba sighs again. “Fine, whatever! ‘Delete that shit’, if that’s what you want to do.”

  
What he _needs_ to do, more like. Because it’s really the only logical solution. Clearly, Kiba can’t see that right now, but he will. Once Naruto ‘deletes that shit’ from his memories, it’s over. That’s it. He’s done.

Easy peasy.

“But I’m telling you right now, Uzumaki. I _know_ where this is going.” 

  
Naruto looks at Kiba out of the corner of his eye.

“Look,” Kiba says. He sets his beer can down and turns to Naruto, squinting at him sharply. “You ain’t ‘deleting’ shit, first off. You’re really just gonna take this whole situation, somehow make it unnecessarily complicated, and then you’re gonna rope me into one of your dumb-ass schemes trying to fix it all...And yeah, I’ll help.” He pauses.

“But I’ll be mad.”

“That’s not—shut up, Kiba!”

Kiba shrugs, grabs his beer, and finishes it. “We’ll see soon enough, I guess.”

“Yeah, I think you will!”

Naruto’s going to forget all about that guy by like _tomorrow_ and then Kiba will see.

**Author's Note:**

> just something quick that i wanted to put out there. my update schedule’s probably gonna be pretty wack, not gonna lie, so don’t expect much. sorry :(
> 
> that being said, comments keep me pretty motivated. just keeping it 100% i’m a slut for feedback, so leave me some and i’ll do anything, baby.
> 
> anything


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